Researcher Development Programme

The Researcher Development Programme is an open series of workshops designed to develop the knowledge, approaches and behaviours essential to the modern researcher. In an ever-changing sector, we expect our researchers to be agile and adaptable in the way they interact with communities both inside and outside the institution. To help them succeed, we strongly believe in listening to, and learning from, our research community to understand its needs and to shape our provision accordingly. In a recent institutional survey, we asked our PGRs and Supervisors which areas of development they saw as being most valuable for today’s researchers; they told us:

•  Knowledge about the Research Milestones involved in doing a research degree
• Information on Research Methods and Approaches
• Academic Reading and Writing
• Approaches for Communication and Engagement
• All-round skills that focus on being an Effective Researcher.

The distinctiveness of the Researcher Development Programme is that it is:

• Co-created: our programme is designed and delivered by our staff, research leads, PGRs, Academic Librarians, Learning Development team, Research Support team, English Language Teaching team, and Innovation and Funding Support (RIFS). We value and recognise the expertise that we have at the university and, as such, we instinctively know who and where to turn to for expertise. We also realise that our PGRs bring a whole host of experience with them and we really value it when they offer to share this in a new workshop!
• Inclusive: all the workshops on our programme are delivered in a friendly, classroom environment. Our tutors often share materials before the workshop and sometimes even set work in advance, adopting an Active Blended Learning approach (ABL) that is standard good practice at UON. This encourages PGRs to use the workshops to put context and theory into practice. Many of the workshops are offered as online webinars or pre-recorded material that can be viewed on our virtual learning environment called NILE

The Researcher Development Programme (2020-2021)

• Research milestones
• Research Methods and Approaches
• Academic Reading and Writing
• Communication and Engagement
• The Effective Researcher

Our Researcher Development Programme is mapped to a recognisable national framework. To do this, we use the Researcher Development Framework (RDF), created by Vitae. The RDF articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers and encourages them to realise their potential. Every one of our workshops is aligned to one or more of the twelve domains that can be seen in the illustration below:

Click to enlarge image

Researcher Development Days

Researcher Development Days offer a cluster of relevant workshops that aim to tie in with the various stages of the PhD cycle. This makes it easier for researchers who find it difficult to get to campus regularly to attend the sessions. The Getting Published Development Day is suitable for all Postgraduate Researchers at all stages of research.

• Getting Started
  • How to start your literature search
  • Developing your substantial piece of written work: A working session
  • Starting a researcher development plan
  • Working with your supervisory team
  • Preparing for a successful transfer
• Making Progress
  • Structuring and writing your thesis
  • Career-planning check point
• Finishing your Thesis
  • Preparing for the Viva
  • Submitting your thesis
  • Editing and finishing your thesis
• Getting Published
  • Getting published in academic journals
  • Your digital footprint and enhancing visibility
  • Lunch with the editors
  • Writing for publication

Events that Promote Researcher Development

Annual Research Conference

Each year we celebrate the very finest research that Northampton has to offer in our annual two-day Research Conference. This year’s online event saw an exciting array of activities in the form of: one distinguished speaker; 3MT; two roundtables; presentations. We invite all researchers, at whatever stage in their research, to join us for this joyous and collaborative event. The feedback from our research student has been positive, some said about the Research Conference: “Wonderful collegiate feeling to it all.” and  “The essence of research community and enthusiasm was infectious.”

Research Competition

Our Images of Research competition invites researchers to present an original image that connects, comments on, or represents their research. They are asked to be as creative as they can to capture the viewer’s imagination. Alongside the image, they’re asked to produce a snappy title and a small piece of text describing their image in plain English and no jargon! All entries are judged by a local, business entrepreneur in the Professional Judge’s Vote and put to the test in front of the research community in a People’s Vote.

Research Poster Competition

Each year, our researchers are challenged with the task of reconfiguring their research in a way that would appeal to a non-specialist audience in our Research Poster Competition. Whether you’ve just started your research degree of in the closing stages, everyone is welcome to submit a poster entry. Supportive development sessions are also offered in the build up to the competition to increase levels of confidence.